A man has been found guilty of second-degree murder for killing his girlfriend, a 23-year-old Ryerson student, a jury found Friday.

It was admitted by the defence that on the sunny July 2010 morning, Farshad Badakhshan slit Carina Petrache’s throat, stabbed her multiple times and set fire to the Annex-area rooming house where both lived in separate apartments.

The defence argued that Badakhshan, 31, has a history of mental illness and was not criminally responsible for Petrache’s death because he was suffering from a “delusional disorder” at the time.

The Crown’s position was that Badakhshan committed first-degree murder, intentionally trapping Petrache in his basement room by setting a fire outside the door before attacking her.

Petrache attempted to flee the blaze, but died from the stab wounds and severe burns on her way to the hospital, the jury heard. Badakhshan was also badly burned in the fire, spending months in a medically induced coma, the jury heard. He was left permanently disfigured and in a wheelchair.

The Crown suggested during the trial that Badakhshan was faking or exaggerating symptoms of mental illness.

“This was not an easy case and you had to work long and hard to reach a verdict,” Superior Court Justice Michael Dambrot told the jury, which spent three days in deliberations.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 16.

Petrache, who was studying criminology and psychology, “was a giver, not a taker. She rarely asked for anything and she was always willing to help others with her time, her wise counsel or her hard work,” her former stepfather Charles Smedmor told the Star after the verdict was delivered.

She was 9 when she came to Canada from Romania in 1996, he said.

“I loved her unconditionally as my daughter. I am immensely sad that I brought her to Canada for a better life and she ended up murdered at age 23,” Smedmor said.

He and Petrache’s mother divorced in 2000 and she has since remarried.

“I cannot bring my Carina back,” he said. “However, I’m saying to young women that when a boyfriend or other male in their life is angry, abusive, nasty or demeaning, there is one response — run, don’t walk to the nearest exit. Get out before you become a tragedy like Carina.”

During the trial which began in January, the jury heard from friends of Petrache that Badakhshan was a “controlling” and “jealous” boyfriend in the six months they were together.

Badakhshan — who went by the name “Shawn” — would question Petrache about where she was going and who with, and called her abusive names, they said.

Petrache had made plans to go swimming with her friend and her ex-boyfriend on the morning she was killed, her friend told the court.

Badakhshan’s mother Sedigheh Moradi testified that her son, who was born in Iran and grew up in Pickering, began behaving strangely in 2005. He became paranoid, accusing her of being a spy and poisoning his food, and said he believed his girlfriend was cheating on him with his father, she said.

He once approached her with a knife and said: “We’ll die together,” Moradi told the court.